Snow fell in slow, silent sheets as they departed Frostveil.
The world beyond the enclave shifted. No longer jagged cliffs and fire-torn valleys, but a wide field of white, carved by deep gorges and petrified rivers of glassy ice. The winds here whispered louder, sharper, as if trying to cut into thought.
They marched for half a day before reaching the edge of the Icewound Trench—a vast canyon that split the world like a sword stroke. The remnants of a city clung to its walls, tiered and broken, encased in frost. Bridges hung shattered across the void. Entire towers leaned into the abyss, frozen mid-collapse.
Jerie stared into the trench. "We're supposed to go in there?"
"No," Gellon said, checking his gear. "We're supposed to go down there. Deep as it goes."
Kian crouched at the edge and ran his hand along the etched stone. Glyphs. Recent. Marked by something still thinking. The Codex confirmed it with a pulse of light across his vision:
[Codex Notice]
────────────────
Location: Icewound Trench – Tier 4 Hazard Zone
Echo Density: High (Memory-Class)
Structural Stability: Falling
▸ Unique Signature Detected: System Remnant Type Unknown
▸ Codex Confidence: 37%
────────────────
He stood, tightening the straps of his cloak. "This is where it's strongest. Whatever the shard awoke—it's pulling toward this place."
"And we're just going to walk in?" Veyna asked.
"Not walk. Climb."
The path down was steep, narrow, and winding. Their boots crunched over ancient bones buried in ice. The further they descended, the colder it grew—not physically, but in a way that clung to the spine. Even Kess's thoughts began to slow, her usually sharp voice quieted.
After an hour, they saw it.
At the trench's lowest floor stood a mirror—not glass, but polished obsidian carved into the stone. Thirty feet tall, it reflected nothing. Not the team. Not the sky.
Only a figure. Standing in the center.
A man made of flickering light and fragmented geometry. His form shifted constantly—sometimes a cloaked warrior, sometimes a hollowed architect, sometimes a child.
He turned without sound. And then he walked forward, leaving no footprints.
"System Ghost," Kess whispered. "Echo-born from incomplete architecture. If it touches us, it might try to overwrite."
Kian stepped ahead of the others. "Let me face it."
Before they could argue, he was already walking. The spear in his hand flickered to life with glyphs. His Codex flared bright.
The ghost tilted its head.
Kian lunged—and the world twisted.
Everything reversed.
One second, his spear struck true. The next, he was ten steps back, falling forward again.
The System Ghost had activated a loop.
It struck out with a fractal blade of light. Kian dodged left, but again, the moment folded—he was back at the start of his motion. No pain, no impact, just the illusion of moving while time stayed still.
The Codex was screaming now:
[System Clash Detected]
▸ Local echo manipulating time-branch vectors
▸ Your actions are being overwritten
[Predation Surge Available: Override Mode]
▸ Engage Y/N?
"No," Kian growled. "Not yet."
He shut out the loops. Shut out the shifting forms.
And stepped back.
Rather than fight the flow, he watched it.
The ghost's pattern wasn't random. It was failing. Stuck in a decaying mimicry of a real person. Trying to recreate a battle that never finished.
That's what it was doing. Not fighting—but remembering.
"I'm not your architect," he whispered.
And for the first time, the ghost paused.
He let it come close. When it lifted its weapon again, he used no spear, no power—only a glyph drawn in the air. An anchor rune. Simple. Old.
The ghost reached for it—
And shattered.
Its fragments scattered into snowflakes, vanishing into the trench air. The obsidian mirror behind it cracked. Then the Codex issued a final, quiet message:
[Echo Absorbed: System Ghost Remnant]
Trait Unlocked: Echo Fragment – Temporarily Recreate Past Combat Pattern (Once per day)
[Codex Rank Up: Level 12 Achieved]
Kian knelt, breathing slowly. His hands trembled, but not from cold.
The others came down to meet him. Jerie stared at the empty air. "That wasn't just a system. That was... a person, once."
"Someone forgotten," Kess said softly. "Held together by code that didn't want to die."
Veyna walked with him back toward the trench wall. "How many more ghosts like that are there?"
Kian looked up. The trench wasn't just deep. It was wide. And he had seen dozens of reflections waiting in that mirror before it cracked.
"A lot," he said. "And the deeper we go, the older they get."
They set up camp in the trench's shelter, surrounded by silence. Tonight, there were no songs. No training. Just a long fire and longer thoughts.
And Kian watching the reflection in his own cup of water.
It didn't match his face.
Not exactly.
End of Chapter 23